It is a big deal, but I don’t think this was a bargaining chip, more like a hostage situation. Pro-choice people voted for it not to get the votes but to avoid losing them. It really was a decision to save the rest of the bill, and I don’t think it could have passed any other way. The problem isn’t that the “progressive” party compromised, it’s that the other side won’t.

“I’m worried about the degree to which the health reform debate is being overwhelmed by abortion politics. If the House, with its strong Dem majority, could pass reform by only 5 votes, then what will happen in the Senate, where Dems have no votes to spare? I’m pro-choice and think the curbs are wrong–but the top priority has to be to get reform through Congress this year.”

I commented, asking when the last time his white male privilege was thrown under the bus. *headdesk* So much for Half the Sky.

This entire brouhaha makes me physically ill.

The rest of us are probably as shocked and angry as you are. The monsters on the right (regardless of party) and their Stockholm-syndrome-stunned fellow travelers had already skinned reproductive rights to the bone in the “negotiations” previously. This feels like they just wanted to pour salt on raw wounds. Just because they could.

Stupack and his masters also obviously crafted it as a bomb to be dropped at the last minute — I can’t believe how unprepared the House managers were. I’m pretty sure that if they hadn’t been so blindsided they might have mounted an effective opposition instead of letting it get to a floor vote.

For instance it would have been nice if anybody had asked for a CBO score on the Stupak amendment. Hard to imagine a $500 termination hitting the Federal Budget harder than $100,000+ for care for a woman who had a preeclampsia-induced stroke late in an unplanned, unwanted pregnancy.

That might have been a zero-cost no-brainer now, while coverage can be declined for pregnancy as a preexisting condition. But presumably the new bill is going to stick both private insurers and any public providers with an itemized bill.

A CBO score will almost certainly reflect that. And it’s not too late! While it’s too late for the House version a big fat CBO score would complicate its survival in the Senate and during reconciliation.

But bottom line this is a huge concern.

figleaf

Not to belabor the obvious, but all my liberal dude friends and relatives are outraged and infuriated by the House’s actions. I say this to help us all keep in mind that we do have genuine male allies whose support is so much appreciated. Those guys are, in the words of the t shirt, what feminism looks like!

Just saying . . .

I just read an Op-Ed in the Greenwich Time praising a local Methodist church for protesting the mother church’s position on LGBT ministrers and same-sex marriage. I agreed with almost everything, save this: “It is the only group that the policies of our great country explicitly discriminate against as well.” (Link: http://www.greenwichtime.com/editorial/ci_13731398.)

In reality, the laws of this country discriminate against women – and will do so even more explicitly if the Stupak amendment makes it into the final bill.

Women, thrown under the bus (and then told to calm down, not make a fuss, that it’s not a big deal), yet again. It makes my blood boil.

Sometimes we forget that it’s a war. But then the men thoughtfully remind us. This is a war, and don’t ever pretend that it isn’t.

For the picture of what life could be like if abortion were illegal again, I’d direct anyone towards ‘Happening’ (‘L’événement’) by Annie Ernaux, the story of her abortion in the 60s…